But language built in to the standard agreement fighters sign when they join the company does establish a basis for decisions such the recent termination of former Strikeforce champion Muhammed “King Mo” Lawal.

“Fighter shall conduct himself in accordance with commonly accepted standards of decency, social conventions and morals, and Fighter will not commit any act or become involved in any situation or occurrence or make any statement which will reflect negatively upon or bring disrepute, contempt, scandal, ridicule, or disdain to Fighter, the Identity of Fighter or any of Fighter’s Affiliates, FORZA or any of its officers, managers, members, employees, or agents.

“Fighter’s conduct shall not be such as to shock, insult or offend the public or any organized group therein, or reflect unfavorably upon any current or proposed sponsor or such sponsor’s advertising agency, or any network or station over which a Bout is to be broadcast.”

Lawal was released outright from his Forza contract on Tuesday after lashing out at a female member of the Nevada State Athletic Commission who questioned him at a hearing that led to his nine-month suspension for failing a post-fight drug test at “Strikeforce: Rockhold vs. Jardine.” (Lawal’s second-round TKO over Lorenz Larkin at the event, which took place at The Joint at Hard Rock Hotel & Casino, was changed to a no-contest, and he was fined and required to submit a clean drug test upon his next application for a license in Nevada.)

Lawal called the commission member a racist on Twitter and said she insulted him by asking whether he could speak and read English during the hearing. Reached after his release, he declined to comment on the record to MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com).

“There are ways to establish if a fighter understands what’s going on or not,” Lawal’s manager, Mike Kogan, said today. “It was already done before the hearing even started. The very first thing they asked him was, ‘Do you understand what’s going on? Do you understand the charges against you? Do you understand you can be represented by council.’ And he said yes. So to come back 20 minutes later and ask the man if he speaks and understands English is very offensive.”

It’s not the first time a fighter has gotten in hot water over social media. Former WEC bantamweight champion Miguel Torres was released by the UFC this past December when he quoted a line from TV show “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia” that made a joke of rape. Former UFC light-heavyweight champion Forrest Griffin also joked about rape a month prior on his Twitter account and later donated to a rape crisis center when public backlash reached a fever pitch.

However, Griffin was not cut from the Zuffa roster, and Torres was re-signed several weeks later when he met with UFC president Dana White and apologized for his behavior.

Former light-heavyweight champion Rashad Evans wasn’t cut, either, when he made an off-color joke about the Penn State sex abuse scandal at a pre-event press conference for UFC on FOX 2.

Controversy over online and public behavior such as this has sparked debate on how and when Zuffa metes out punishment. Fighters, of course, live in the public eye but are bound by the rules of a private company.

The UFC issues cash bonuses of $5,000 to fighters with funny or original Tweets, as well as for those who have the most Twitter followers. Few crack the 100,000 mark, though champions such as Georges St-Pierre are followed by more than 400,000.

Longtime manager Tom Call makes sure he addresses with his fighters the idea that they’re held to a different standard, especially when public conflict arises.

“I think part of the job, especially when you’re working for a company that can create that kind of exposure for you, that conduct policy extends into the way you behave just for the business sense of sponsors,” he said. “You want to conduct yourself in a proper way so that you don’t eliminate other business interests.

“That’s how I counsel my guys with or without a code of conduct, honestly. It just makes good business sense.”

Kogan said he has yet to discuss the next step with his fighter.

“The interpretation of what’s acceptable and not has been left to the employer,” Kogan said. “It’s within their discretion. Have there been instances in which a fighter has Tweeted or said something that was either just as offensive or maybe even more offensive than what Mo said? Yes. Have they received disciplinary actions? No. So is there a consistency in enforcing the code of conduct? No, there isn’t. Is the UFC justified in enforcing it in most cases? Contractually, yes.

“The lesson is, if you don’t want people pissed at you, keep your mouth shut, even if you think something being said was wrong. That being said, should Mo have called [the commissioner] a bitch? No, probably not. That might have been a little out of line. He was upset. He’s been going through a lot in the past few months, and it all got bottled up and he expressed himself maybe inappropriately. But we’re all humans and we say stuff. That’s actually quoting Dana White.”

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